May 30, 2025 | Be God's Family
Christ is Better
Scripture: Hebrews 7:20-28(NIV)
20 And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 21 but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him:
“The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
‘You are a priest forever.’”
22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.
23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
Devotional
I love the deep dive we are doing, but sometimes it is easy to lose the overall context when you are concentrating on just a few verses. Today's reading is the culmination of prior chapters:
In Hebrews Chapter 5 the writer brings up an obscure Old Testament character named Melchizedek as High Priest and King so he can show how we need Jesus as a better one.
Most of us know some "cultural Christians" who profess Christian values, without really being Christians in any meaningful sense. I know that the author was addressing a group of persecuted Jews, but I often wonder if he was also addressing a similar group of "cultural Jews" because he kind of goes on a a rant about their spiritual maturity at the end of Chapter 5 and on through Chapter 6.
In Chapter 7, in the verses right before our passage today, Melchizedek gets brought up again but this time because he was not a Levite. The point is about out how the priestly class become priests by virtue of their birth into the right tribe. But even they still have to atone for their own sins, and they all eventually die too. That means that they are insufficient to bring us lasting forgiveness. They, unlike Jesus, are inadequate to really atone for our sins.
The author has been building up to his big point which is that "Christ is better." And He is! Only Jesus has a "permanent priesthood," and is able to "save completely." That was important news to the Jewish audience who were asking themselves why they needed this Jesus guy instead of just going along like they always had.
Apparently, this argument worked. If it hadn't, it would not have been passed down to us as Biblical canon today. Speaking of today, do you ever wonder why an argument about Jesus' superiority to a Hebrew audience nearly 2000 years ago is still relevant?
I think that we, like that audience, are swimming in a culture that gives lip service to Jesus by celebrating Christmas and Easter all while celebrating a "live for the moment" lifestyle, prioritizing looks and popularity over character and integrity and looking out for number one.
If you are anything like me, I need that daily reminder that I was made for so much more. I feel so blessed to help write some of these devotionals because they are one of the things that helps me combat that kind of worldly thinking by being a daily reminder that Christ is better. So, stick with Him!
Poem
Glorious Things Are Spoken
Psalm 87
Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. Selah!
Psalm 87: 3
From out of Zion
Glory streams
A river of life
From Eden’s tree
Glorious things are spoken
From out of Zion
New birth streams
A parade of saints
From Calvary’s tree
Glorious things are spoken
From out of Zion
Christ’s blood streams
A fountain of covenant
From Eternal Life’s tree
Glorious things are spoken
